With veteran left tackle Trent Brown departing in free agency, the Patriots are looking to fill his old role this offseason. As organized team activities have opened, free agent addition Chukwuma Okorafor has been taking first-team snaps at the position, according to Mike Reiss of ESPN.
Okorafor, a former third-round pick for the Steelers, has spent the first six years of his NFL career in Pittsburgh. His first two seasons only saw the Nigerian find starting time as an injury replacement. After Okorafor finished out his rookie contract with two straight seasons as a starter, the Steelers rewarded him with a three-year, $29.25MM extension. After losing his starting job to first-round rookie Broderick Jones last year, though, the Steelers released Okorafor to free agency.
Now in New England, Okorafor will have the opportunity to re-earn a starting job and fill in for the departed Brown. Okorafor’s competition for the job will be Vederian Lowe, who started eight games in injury relief for the Patriots last year, and third-round rookie Caedan Wallace out of Penn State.
In additional offensive line news out of New England OTAs, second-year lineman Atonio Mafi was seen taking snaps at center behind starter David Andrews. Mafi, a former fifth-round pick who converted from defensive line to guard at UCLA, had yet to seen time at center while making five starts at left guard as a rookie. New offensive line coach Scott Peters and assistant offensive line coach Robert Kugler seem to have some interest in expanding his role on the line.
Here are some other rumors coming out of the AFC East:
- We had reported previously that Jets head coach Robert Saleh had explored the idea of reducing the role of offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. This exploration came after the seeing Hackett seemingly lost for options after the loss of starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers early in the season. A more recent report from ESPN’s Rich Cimini claims that Saleh is now taking a deeper role in the offense himself. The former defensive coordinator seems to be keeping a close eye over the shoulder of Hackett as their jobs both heat up in 2024.
- Long-time Bills starting linebacker Matt Milano missed 12 games after suffering a season-ending knee injury last year. The team is looking to pair Milano back up with last year’s emergent starter Terrel Bernard, but that won’t be happening in OTAs. According to Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN, Milano is on schedule with his recovery, but “it’s probably going to be more closer to training camp until” he sees the field again.
Doesnt matter….Bills missed their window
Thanks for the update RGIII.
The Bills missed the window of the team they built around Allen’s affordable years, but if he stays healthy, he’s good enough to build a winner around while expensive, even if I don’t think they’ve done the best job of this offseason’s transition. Still a good team with more window to come. And I say this as a Jets fan.
LOL! Jets fan pretending to understand playoff windows
As opposed to a football fan who thinks a team with a top five quarterback in his 20s has its playoff window slammed shut for good?
No one said anything about it being for good. Buffalo had a SB roster and the window closed. Yes, Josh Allen is great. Yes, Cook came on, but the core of the team that had the potential to run away with the Lombardi has had the window close. Bills are in for a couple middle of the pack years to try and re-open that window. I suppose I understand though….when the Jets window closed in the 70s….it never reopened
Saleh can look over Hackett’s shoulder all he wants but he’ll have to go to war with Rodgers to oust the guy…and that’s a road I doubt he’ll travel down.
If Saleh wants to keep his job, he might have no choice. There’s no guarantee that a healthy Rodgers will make the team competitive.
The Jets basically went “all in” on Rodgers so that’s the hand they have to lay on the table and hope it’s good enough to win.
Drake Maye won’t survive his rookie year if Chuks is the starter at LT
Maye isn’t going to start this season. Least not at the beginning. That’s why they signed Brissett
Oh joy, Saleh is taking a deeper role in the offense. This is going to be an epic failure
I dunno. While that’s not his area, I certainly would rather see Saleh try to address an issue than ignore it. Obviously he didn’t have much choice about replacing the coordinator, so he is doing what he can do. I think that he is a good coach with poor luck. That Wilson pick really wasted a ton of good effort from both he and Douglas a few years ago, and the Jets have been attempting to salvage their roster since. Saleh is better off at least trying to make a fix than to just cross his fingers and hope that this time Hackett will figure it out.
The Jets OL has been a concern but until we actually see what Rodgers can do in that offense it’s hard to know how much needs to be fixed. If the Jets defense can continue to play at a high level Rodgers won’t have to carry the team on his back as was sometimes the case in Green Bay.